Jason Schneiderman

Lamentation

O dust. O man who is to be dust. O muse
who sings the dust that was man. O dust
that is sung. O broom that sweeps the dust
I sing. O hay that became broom. O stick
that became broom. O broom factory.
O sweeper. O sweeper. O sweeper.

As with Emily Dickinson's best poems, "Lamentation" arrives unapologetically from the metaphysical and physical worlds alike—arrives from a mysterious elsewhere in which the internal and external are seamlessly joined by virtue of an unselfconsciously fearless and almost mythic voice. It reflects the intense formal integrity, passion, and disregard for fashion that we see in Dickinson, yet is far from imitative.